Why Are The Koch Brothers Helping A Democrat?

Charles and David Koch are lending support to a Democrat up for re-election in a state where Republicans should be able to pick up a seat.

Politico reports: “The conservative Koch brothers political network is launching a new ad campaign boosting Sen. Heidi Heitkamp — a surprising show of support for one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection. Americans for Prosperity is running digital advertisements to thank the North Dakota senator for helping pass a bill that relaxes some financial regulations under the Dodd-Frank law.”

While it’s true that Heitkamp is a more conservative-leaning Democrat, that’s really no reason for Republicans to give her a bunch of credit for it. She is still a Democrat, a member of Chuck Schumer’s caucus, and she is getting challenged for a re-election by an actual Republican: Rep. Kevin Cramer.

Cramer is a strong candidate who holds North Dakota’s only congressional seat, meaning he has name-wide appeal, and President Trump won North Dakota in 2016 handily of course. So why are Republicans pretending that having a moderate Democrat is a good thing when they should be focusing on Heitkamp as an easy-to-knock-out enemy and Schumer ally.

The Kochs have been NeverTrump agitators during the Age of The Donald, and they are not the pro-GOP power brokers that they get credit for (their hold on Vice President Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan notwithstanding).

The Koch Brothers’ political bank Freedom Partners is working against President Donald Trump’s tariffs with an ad “targeted to attendees of the May 15 United States Trade Representative (USTR) meeting to hear public comments regarding new tariffs on a wide array of goods imported from China.”

Freedom Partners is trying to whip up backlash to the tariffs in order to hurt Trump’s policymaking potential, and it underscores how the traditional boogey-men of the media are actually part of the Resistance, too. When the entire Republican Establishment and Mitt Romney went hard against Trump, the Republican Party changed.

Now, NeverTrumpers are split between pretending to be Trump supporters and going along with it until they can get Nikki Haley or Mike Pence into office, or they’re just bitter and angry somewhere.

The Libertarian world is in turmoil right now because Trump supporters have been getting purged in favor of strictly establishment voices and progressives.